The inactives are out for today’s game at Lincoln Financial Field as the Philadelphia Eagles host the Tennessee Titans, and here they are:
PHILADELPHIA EAGLES: CB Roc Carmichael, QB Nick Foles, DE Taylor Hart, OT Dennis Kelly, WR Jeff Maehl, C Julian Vandervelde, CB Jaylen Watkins
TENNESSEE TITANS: WR Kris Durham, TE Richard Gordon, DB Marqueston Huff, DL Ropati Pitoitua, OT Will Svitek, QB Charlie Whitehurst, CB Blidi Wreh-Wilson
A couple interesting changes for the Titans. They’re going a DB down, as Wreh-Wilson can’t play with his back injury. Huff was doubtful, so he was not likely to play. Even with Brandon Harris up after being inactive lately, that could be a challenge against an Eagles team that runs an awful lot of plays.
One personnel switch on the defensive line, with DaQuan Jones coming in. Rather than a straight one-for-one swap with Al Woods, who plays a similar role, the Titans put down a healthy Pitoitua. Ray Horton mentioned in his weekly press conference the Titans were going to have two personnel groupings to match up to the Eagles’ two base groupings. I wonder if the Jones-Pitoitua move is part of that. If the idea of two different personnel groupings to face a particular opponent gives you bad memories of the 3-3-5 and 4-2-5 packages against the Broncos last year, you’re not alone. Against an Eagles team that moves so fast, I’ll be curious to see how well Jones answers those playing personality issues I noted in the offseason.
With an extra body available because they’re down at DB, the Titans are keeping an extra running back up. Antonio Andrews is active for the first time. I do not get this move at all. The Titans already can’t find snaps for the running backs they keep up weekly, and Shonn Greene and Antonio Andrews are pretty complementary. If you’re going to keep Andrews up, I would have deactivated Greene and kept Richard Gordon. I was actually looking forward to seeing a run game that might actually work with a returning Delanie Walker working in combination with Gordon on the edges instead of Chase Coffman, about whom I will simply note that he’s likely a better blocker than I am.
There are no particularly interesting inactives for the Eagles; Foles was Out, while no one else was other than probable. Their key injuries, to center Jason Kelce and left guard Evan Mathis, came back last week. At his best, Kelce is maybe the most athletic center in the league (for a more familiar comparable, think Chris Myers of the Texans from a couple years ago-plus). He may not be 100% yet, but he still solid and good at getting up to the second level, something that we’ve seen is all too easy to do against the Titans. Last year, the Eagles relied on that really good offensive line and run the ball incredibly well. They also had the same offensive line for all 16 games. This year, most of the line has missed time. Though Kelce, Mathis, and right tackle Lane Johnson are all back, right guard Todd Herremans is out. Matthew Tobin has started for him, but he had a concussion against the Packers so Andrew Gardner will start today. He’s an exploitable weakness. With the line not performing as well as it did last year, LeSean McCoy has a Case of Chris Johnson, bouncing past holes in favor of better holes, or more comfortable ones. He’s not at Peak CJ level, more like Bishop Sankey level. Like CJ and unlike Sankey, he’s athletic enough to make it work sometimes, but he’s definitely costing the team yards.
Mark Sanchez is the starting quarterback. He’s a better mover than Nick Foles, and that’s really obvious if you watch the two of them in the same game (I watched the Texans game where Foles was injured). On the other hand, he’s still Mark Sanchez. Julius Peppers said of his pick-six last week, when Sanchez threw the ball right to him, that he had no idea why Sanchez made that throw. Yyyyyup. On the other hand, if you give him a clean pocket, open receivers, and time to survey the field, Sanchez showed against the Panthers he can beat you when he’s not beating his team. The Eagles tend to see a lot of man coverage, as Jeremy Maclin is their only receiver I trust to win against man. If the Titans do a solid job of playing physical at the catch point with Jordan Matthews, he doesn’t concern me. If they leave Matthews open, or the Eagles get him on a crosser against a linebacker, that does concern me. Kelly’s play designs can be very effective, and the Titans need to be ready for them. This could be a tight end game for the Eagles offense.
Defensively, the Eagles are solid, better than I thought they’d be (currently eighth in DVOA). They have some very solid pass rushers. We saw that most dramatically in the Giants game on Sunday Night Football, when they played consistent five-man fronts and harassed Eli Manning relentlessly. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them do something similar this week, to test if the Titans linemen can hold up one-on-one. Beyond Sanchez, the Eagles’ corners are the best reasons for hope for a Titans triumph. Bradley Fletcher is up-and-down and has given up big plays this year, while Cary Williams’ M.O. is to allow completions and then tackle the receiver. I would expect the Titans to use Zach Mettenberger’s arm to test them with outside vertical routes. That against the pass rush could be a high variance gameplan for both teams, but when you’re a bad team playing a much better one on the road, then a high variance gameplan is not a bad thing.
I’ll be chiming in during the game on Twitter, so follow and yap at me there if you so desire. Recap up after the game, snap report Monday, more content during the week as the press of other obligations and the need to Watch Moar Football dictate.
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